Roos survive Demon scare in King’s Birthday thriller

By Rob Popplestone

THE standalone game over the King’s Birthday weekend was billed as a clash between two very good sides, but with each coming off contrasting fortunes from just seven days earlier.

Fish Creek had achieved one of their more memorable wins of 2024, defeating rival and the previously unbeaten Foster, while MDU had suffered one of their most disappointing losses, a shock defeat at the hands of Toora.

The Demons wanting immediate redemption against one of the league’s best was never going to be an easy task, but as tough as it was, the Demons came within a kick of achieving a reward for effort.

Fish Creek fell by a single kick 8-13-61 to MDU 8-7-55.

“A gutsy win for us,” Jarrod Walker, Fish Creek coach said. “Conditions actually stayed pretty good for the game after looking very wintery in the morning. It allowed for both teams to start using the footy better and when MDU get their kicking game on they are hard to stop.”

There was never much in the game between the two sides, an eleven-point lead at quarter time, many thought would set the tone, but the Demons refused to go away.

“I was super proud of the guys and the effort they gave something we were well short of last week,” Rhett Kelly, 
Demons coach said.

“We will look to adjust a few things and continue to keep putting in the hard work.”

MDU, were never far away, even when the Kangaroos thought they had the game in their keeping, they didn’t, the game going down to the wire.

“There were ebbs and flows all day. I thought we had done enough at the start of the last quarter to kick away but MDU dug deep to get back within a kick. We were able to kill the game a bit in the end but had a lot of nervous defending for the final 5-10 minutes,” Kangaroos coach, Walker stated.

Good sides find a way to win, and no one questions how good Fish Creek are, not even the Demons.

“It was a great game of footy, Fish Creek was too strong a real quality team and looked very well structured. We look forward to another hit out with them later in the year,” Kelly said.

The Demons will get their chance at the reigning premiers later in the year, but between now and then, they first have to get back on the winners list after successive losses has them back to a pack of clubs all as desperate as them to climb further up the ladder.